Someone 2 Know: Charlie Abowd

We arrive early in the morning, before the breakfast rush and head directly to the heart of Cafe at Adele's.

It is sometimes quiet and at times loud, but the kitchen at Adele’s is always busy and always in the very capable hands of owner and Chef Charlie Abowd.

"I see a master and a genius at work," says Karen, his wife and business partner.

Charlie says he’s happy when he’s cooking and creating. “My passion is in the kitchen." And it shows. "Each dish comes out to perfection,” says Karen.

That devotion and attention to detail has customers coming back - time and time again. "It's been sublime, superb, beautiful - for 40 years,” says longtime patron CJ Hadley, who has been eating at Adele’s since day one.

Paul and Adele Abowd - Charlie’s parents - took over the 1864 Comstock Victorian home and made it their restaurant in 1977. Adele died in 2004 and Paul has retired, but you can still find the couple lovingly looking over the place from their framed photo above the fireplace.

"Our lives kinda grew up with it and we've grown with it,” says Karen.

Charlie and Karen took over the cafe at Adele’s some 25 years ago. Despite his dad's insistence that his son not work in the restaurant business, Charlie fell in love with all of it.

"There isn't a station in this restaurant that I haven't worked - from dishwasher to bartender to sommelier - to chef,” says Charlie.

But after decades of running a cherished culinary destination, this chef is ready to hang up his apron.

Charlie and Karen are selling Adele’s

"When, I don't know,” says Charlie. “We don't have any buyers. We're just starting this journey."

A bittersweet one...for the Abowds and their devoted patrons, "… the people is probably the hardest part,” Karen says with sadness in her eyes.

Quite possibly the restaurant’s biggest fan, Hadley was almost speechless when she heard the news that Adele’s as we have known it, will soon be no-longer. “You've done an awful lot for northern Nevada and you've made us all better. Thank you."

Much of the charitable work Adele’s has done over the past decades will continue even after the restaurant is sold.

If you’d like check them out, they are open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, six days a week.